“I wanted to, but I had probably already caused a bigger mess than I could even sweep up. If I brought two bodies, two Serbians, to the closest army medic, there would be an investigation, an inquisition, and I knew it could lead to all of us receiving a dishonorable discharge for disobeying direct orders.”

“What happened after?” I asked, still absorbing his story and failing to see a connection to the embassy fire. “Did you return home?”

“Not right away. The army still wanted intel. Sources come and go all the time in the intelligence world. Just because we lost one contact on the inside didn’t mean our mission was over. We had to keep at it, confronting and bribing any known member of the Serbian forces, at least those we determined could be bought.”

“Bought? How?” My mind started racing, recalling how this man had been accused of selling military secrets and arms to enemy forces. Was this where he got his start in betraying his country?

“We had more weapons than we knew what to do with, and some of these Serbs were more than eager to get their hands on them. So we did a trade. Their information for some guns.”

I narrowed my gaze at him, questioning him.

“I know how it sounds.” He put his hands up defensively. “But if you let me continue, I can tell you who is responsible for the misdeeds of which I am being accused, okay?”

“You mean, you know who did all of those things?” Mackenzie blurted out, her eyes growing wide.

“Yes, little bug,” he responded, his voice soft and pacifying.

“Why didn’t you come forward if you knew who was responsible?” I asked. “Why stay hidden for all those years and take the blame?”

“I didn’t put the pieces together right away. Now, looking back, it was all so obvious, but maybe I didn’t want to see it. Maybe I didn’t want to think that someone I had grown so close to could do something so spiteful as to set me up for treason, which carries the penalty of death.”

“Who?” Mackenzie asked.

Francis sighed. “Harrison Mills.”

“Mr. Mills?” She stared in shock at her father, her mouth open as she tried to process that piece of information. “How? Why?”

“It’s probably my fault he got into everything like he did. During our time in Bosnia, I realized he was remarkably good at the art of persuasion, so he became our man on the ground. He was young, charismatic, just an all-around great person. He was the type of guy you’d drop everything to be around, and this personality even drew the enemy to him. He’d make the deals, while the rest of us worked different angles or tried to determine movements based on intel and coded messages he received. Nearly every day, we’d send him on his way with a truck full of weapons. He’d come back with an empty truck and pages upon pages of his notebook filled with intel. Some of it was good. Some turned out to be false leads.

“After two months, we were pulled out of Bosnia, all of us given an award of distinction for our service to our country while there. We never uttered a word about our one failed mission. To everyone, the operation was a complete success. However, I couldn’t help but think that I was at a turning point in my life so I decided to put in for a transfer to the Army Criminal Investigative Command. I thought with all my special ops and investigative training from the Rangers, it would be a good alternative. Plus, I found out there was a baby on the way.” He looked at Mackenzie and grabbed her hand in his. “I hated the idea of having to spend weeks or months away from my wife and daughter. I was given a role as a special agent before being transferred into Counterintelligence as a supervisory special agent, where I spent the next ten years of my life putting some really horrible people behind bars.”

“But something must have happened toward the end, right?” I asked, knowing there had to be more.

He nodded, releasing his hold on Mackenzie’s hand. “Roughly seven or eight years after I started working in Counterintelligence, I received notice of a new agent who would be part of my team. No information had been given to me, but my superior officer assured me he’d be a great fit since he had just spent the past fifteen years as a Ranger. I was thrilled about having another Ranger under my supervision. That evening, I went home and you could imagine my surprise when I saw Harrison and his family moving into the house next to mine. I hadn’t seen him since the debriefing after Bosnia. When he told me he was my new special agent, I couldn’t have been happier. I took him under my wing, showing him the ropes at Counterintelligence. I trusted him blindly, but I shouldn’t have.”

“When did everything start to spiral out of control?” Mackenzie asked. “Toward the end, I remember you were barely ever home.”

“I thought I was on to something. The clues were all there. Arms shipment going missing overseas, the weapons eventually ending up involved in some big shoot-out between notorious drug cartels and the DEA, among other incidents. I remember thinking about Harrison and his knack for making these kind of deals while we were in Bosnia. I even brought him into my office to question him, especially when I caught wind of an arrangement between someone on the inside and the U.S. ambassador to Liberia. The ambassador had agreed to turn a blind eye and provide tactical support to a large weapons trade that was about to happen with the rebels in Sierra Leone. In exchange, he’d get a percentage of the diamonds for which the weapons were being sold. Harrison swore to me the only time he sold military weapons was under my guidance. I believed him, but I couldn’t let this lead slip through my fingertips.” He shook his head in frustration. “I should have seen it all before, but I blindly requested and was granted permission to go to Liberia and investigate.”

“Let me guess. You got there and there was someone already at the embassy, shouting about a circle of trust.” I knew enough that I could fill in the blanks at this point.

“He burned those people alive. I did all I could to save one of them.” He looked at Mackenzie. “Charlie.”

“But why would Mills want to set you up like that?”

“At first, I thought he was purely motivated by greed. He could continue to make arms deals, but I had confronted him about it and spooked him. The Liberian deal was already in place, so what better way to silence me than to go over there and kill me in the fire, all the while making it look like I was the one responsible for all those deals. But that didn’t sit right with me. I needed to know more.

“By the time I had figured out this much, I had been presumed dead, my name dragged through the mud. Hell, Harrison had done such a thorough job, all the compelling physical evidence pointed to me as the man behind those arms deals…including bank accounts. I had nothing to go on, but I just knew it had to be him. It was my word against his, so I would need something more. Thankfully, Chaplain Slattery still had some contacts who could access information for me. For years, I had Harrison followed, had access to information in his accounts, his emails, monitored his phone calls… I hoped we’d find something, but we couldn’t. Nothing at all. And it was eating me up to see him simply living his life while I had to remain in hiding. So I thought maybe if I sent him a message that I was still alive and knew what he had done…”

“How? I thought he went missing?” I inquired.

Francis nodded. “He did. It was shortly after Magdalena’s death.” He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. “I stalled, always thinking I was missing something, that maybe he wasn’t the one behind it all. Hell, all I had to go on was my gut that he set me up. For years, I continued searching for a needle in a haystack when I should have trusted my gut from the beginning and confronted Harrison when I had the chance. If I had, I can’t help but wonder if things would have turned out differently. If my Magdalena wouldn’t…” His voice trailed off.